//------------------------------// // Shadow Storm // Story: Forgotten Memories // by ShadowVoltstreaker //------------------------------// I’m not sure how long I’ve been falling… nor am I too keen on finding out. Being alone for this long is insufferable.. I’m unable to talk anyways, so it’s not like a companion would do me any good. Actually, I’m fairly certain I can talk.. I suppose being surrounded by darkness for an extended period of time causes your thought process to shift into some inescapable oblivion. Not that it matters anyways. I’ve been with darkness for so long that it’s hard to imagine life without it. It’s been my true companion all this time… never leaving my side, always keeping me in a tender embrace. If I lost that feeling. The embrace of darkness… What would become of me? I open my eyes and look around… “Still nothing..” I quickly clamp a hand over my mouth, astonished. I spoke… Th-that voice.. it belongs to me… right? I slowly remove my hand from my mouth and look down. Then the unexpected happens. A glint of light… it’s faint, but it’s there nevertheless! I begin to make my way towards the light, but stop. I look in every direction besides the one the light is coming from. Am… am I really able to part with my companion? I’m indecisive, I don’t even know what about the light is drawing me towards it… and it could just be a trap. A trap to take me away from my protector.. my ally. “Oh will you cut it out already?” I hear Slips say across from me. A… a voice? But it’s not mine… whose is it? Who’s the owner of this voice, and why do they interfere with my and Darkness’s relationship! “I swear… if you don’t stop, I’m going to take over your body, and read every MLP creepypasta out there…” he threatens me. Th-this voice is familiar.. “Sl-Slips? So it was you who was my true companion all along.. the one who has saved me from the darkness’s grasp.” “That’s it. I’m reading Cupcakes, Sweet Apple Masacre, an—“ I cut him off, “Geez, can’t you take a joke?” I hear him sigh,“Let’s just go and get this over with. We’ve only been falling for this long because you didn’t want to land.” I smirk, “Did you say… land?” “Yes, now let—“ he smacks face first into a mattress that I placed on the floor, while I land on my feet. He growls with anger and flames overtake his body, instantly charring the mattress. He then looks at me. His flames have created a new light source, but I wish that they hadn’t. Slips’ eyes are pitch black, combined with the pure black flames that protruded from his body. Wait… pure black flames? “Slips’ hold on a second.” I activated my Veil and looked at my flames… they were dark red.. “What’s going on here? Your flames are black and mine are red…” His face grew into a shocked expression as he scanned the flames on his body, then the flames on my body. “Perhaps…” the flames were lowering, “perhaps you now fully control a half of the Veil, while I control the other.” It made sense. “But doesn’t that mean that when we’re separated our powers weaken?” He thought about it for a moment, “That is a possibility..” “Separate we are strong..” I begin. “But together we are invincible!” he finishes and holds his fist out and I give him a brofist and shout, “Yeah!” I materialize a torch and light it with my flames, providing more light. In front of us is a door with the words, “Shadow’s Life” etched into the front. “Guess that’s where we’re going.” I was about to reach out and grab the door but Slips stopped me, “what is it?” I asked him. “I feel like we’re missing something here..” “How could we be? We got a light, and we got ourselves, what else do we ne—“ then it hits me. The reason why I regained my memories was because I was there to witness them. So naturally, for Shadow to regain his memories, he needs to be here. I facepalm and sigh, “I can’t believe we forgot him!” “How do we even find him?” Slips asks me. “Well…” I think. “Hey Sally!” I shout. “Yeeess?” her voice rings out. “I’ll make a deal with you. If we can choose the correct memories to show the guys, then you give them all of their memories back. Also, you have to bring them here to witness them happen.” “Well if I do that then you get your friends back. So what’s in it for me?” she asks. I need something to bet that she really wants. I stood there thinking about it for a good 15 seconds before saying, “If I can’t get their memories correct, then you get to do anything you want with us. No matter what it is.” It’s a heavy bet, but I’m not sure if she’d want anything else. “Anything huh?” she paused, “You got yourself a deal.” She snapped her fingers, and a flash of light appeared beside me. “Just don’t regret it later.” After the light subsided I took a look and smiled, “Hey there Issac.” He looked around, then to me, then to Slips, “Am I inside my own memories?” “No you—“ I stopped and looked at him unbelievingly, “How’d you know?” He pointed his finger at the ground and calmly said, “That.” I angled the torch at the ground and took a look myself. I wish I hadn’t. All along the floor.. were blood and limbs. In the corners of the room, in the middle.. and surprisingly, even the ceiling. Blood was dripping everywhere.. I look at him in disbelief, “I knew you had a past where you killed, but this is just insane!” “I prefer the term, Mentally Unstable.” He replied with a crooked smile. “Now, if we are to get my memories back, we had best be on our way.” He walked to the door and ran his fingers from the middle, to the door knob, then paused. “Oh, and don’t throw up, I’d rather not have that inside of my mind.” He turned the knob and thrust open the door, which immediately pulled me, him, and Slips in. I opened my eyes and found I was lying on the ground. I slowly lifted myself up into a standing position and checked out my surroundings. A virtually empty room from what I can see. However, along the walls is a line of filles and colts. If I had to take a rough estimate of how many there are, I’d say about 25 or 30. I look below me and see a large amount of knives scattered along the floor. And… I think the number of knives matches the number of children.. “I-Issac? Slips? You in here?” I shout. “Yeah… We’re over here.” I hear Issac’s voice say. Looking in the direction I find him and Slips in the far corner of the room standing next to a power generator. I make my way over to him and ask, “Issac, do you know where we are?” No response.. only a single tear that that falls down his cheek. I decide to not say anything else, and just look on with them. The children are all crying, asking to see their parents. A few are even consoling each other. Then, a hole in the ceiling opens, and a black colt with a black mane and tail falls in, landing stomach first. “That’s the last of them sir.” I hear a faint voice say over an intercom. “Good. Now then!” another voice shouts, “You have all been gathered here.. for a test. You see, we want to know which of you is worthy of being our lap dog.” He chuckled for a moment before continuing, “I know you’ve all seen the knives that are scattered across the room..” the children began whispering amongst themselves, “Well. You are all to have a fight to the death! The winner shall be working for us.” I felt my teeth clench and my muscles tighten, “Bastard… you can’t just manipulate others like this!” I shouted, I knew he couldn’t hear me… but I had to say something. A few more of the kids began crying, and it seemed like this angered him, “If you don’t do as I say, then every minute that passes I shall throw one of you into the gas chambers! So I suggest that you get busy!” the intercom shuts off, leaving only the sound of a few kids crying. Shadow looked around for a moment, then lowered his head. I looked beside me at Issac and saw he had a frown on his face, “I.. hate to ask, but have you remembered anything?” I reluctantly asked him. “I don’t remember much.. but I do remember” he swallowed hard, “that Group 601 kidnapped me, and all of these kids.. It was as the guy said, we will kill each other.. whether we wanted to or not.” A tear rolled down his cheek, “Whether we wanted to or not..” A minute rolled by, and a door behind the kids was opened.. one of the fillies is gone now. One of the colts that was near the filly when she was taken moved over to a knife on the floor and hesitantly picked it up in his mouth. He then turned on a red colt.. and slit his throat. The other kids were in a full on panic, they rushed and picked up the knives in their mouths.. a few died before they could even pick one up. Shadow was running around frantically, he had a knife in his mouth.. and blood was splattered all over his coat. A grey filly then ran up to him, and sliced his right calf, causing him to shriek in pain.. nevertheless, he turned and plunged the knife into the grey filly’s skull.. He stared at her with a horrified expression.. her eyes were still open, and the blood was pouring into her eye sockets and down her face, making its home on the floor. Shadow quickly ran away, not even bothering to retrieve the knife.. He was headed towards us. I once again looked at Issac, this time, he had.. a wicked smile on his face. “This is the good part.” He chuckled. I knew he could be crazy.. but this is too much, “What part of all of these kids killing each other is classified as ‘good’?” I shouted. His response was only a cackle. Shadow ran past us and straight to the power generator, but he wasn’t alone.. a few of the kids who had banded together were right behind him. A yellow Pegasus, a green Unicorn, and an orange Pegasus, each with many cuts on their bodies, and a knife in their mouth. “No where to run now.. As soon as you and those other ponies die, then we can go free!” the Orange one said. Shadow turned and faced them for a moment, before running behind the generator. “It’s no use trying to hide!” the Green one chuckled. A few moments later, the generator started to spark, and electricity began to snake out in short bursts. “Wh-what’s happening?” the Yellow Pegasus asked, only to receive a bolt of electricity through the chest as a response. Shadow then appeared from behind the generator with, what I think was the power coil. “What the hell did you do!” the Orange Pegasus shouted. A grin crept over Shadow’s face, “I think.. I’ve just found my ticket out of this hell hole!” he then aimed the coil at the Orange Pegasus and shot him dead in the chest, killing him upon impact. The green Pegasus then began to back away slowly.. he was crying, repeating over and over.. “I don’t want to die!” He was quickly silenced. As his limp body fall to the floor, the smell of burning flesh finally hit my nose, and I recoiled. I then look over at Slips and Issac.. both are wickedly smiling. Shadow then chucked the coil into the center of the room and hid. The coil then exploded, spewing electricity in all directions, killing a few of the kids, and rendering a few immobile. I turn away from the pile of bodies, unable to stomach the sight, only to see Shadow staring at his flank in awe, and horror. He had gotten his cutie mark. The scenery around us was then sucked up, and replaced by a stale white. Issac had a blank expression on his face, while Slips looked happy. “probably because he got to witness Shadow killing others..” I thought to myself. A few seconds pass and Issac finally speaks up, “My cutie mark.. was Group 935’s logo.. and I was Group 601’s greatest asset… After killing all the remaining ponies in that place.. I was trained, then years later, was sent to the Wittenau Sanatorium.. I was there to.. to…” he shut his eyes and slammed his hands over his head, a moment later, another door appeared in front of us. It was a a red color, and it looked as though the paint was still drying. A drop fell to the floor.. and it was then that I realized that this wasn’t paint.. It was blood. The door was covered in it, from top to bottom. Looking at the door knob, I saw that it was a pony’s hoof, colored gold to be appealing to the eye. I stared at it in disgust before saying, “Yeah… I’m not opening that.” Issac looked at me with a mocking smile, “Why not? Too scared?” “Hey it’s your door, so you open it.. unless you have no balls.” I teased him. “Ok now you’re just trying to get out of opening it.” I nudged Slips in the arm and began chanting with him, “No balls! No balls! No balls!” until Issac finally sighed, and opened the door. Behind the door, as I expected, was darkness. We were quickly sucked in, and before I entered, I felt my arm brush up against the hoof, scarring me for life. The darkness of the room cleared and was replaced with.. what I assumed was cream colored hospital walls. Issac and Slips were beside me, and Issac had his sights fixed on something.. after following his gaze, I noticed it wasn’t something.. but someone. We were now all looking at Shadow, he looked to be about 16, and had on a white lab coat, stained with blood. He was slowly moving towards us, his mane covering his face, and.. was humming a tune. I didn’t know what it was, nor did I want to. He moved past us, and as he did, the smell of decaying flesh attacked the air around me, causing me to flinch. After walking for a while he stopped at a door a few steps away and went in. Issac and Slips quickly followed him, with me slowly inching my way. We all went inside the room.. the floors, ceiling, and walls were padded.. in the center of the room, was the kind of chair you’d see in a dentist’s office. The table beside it even had similar tools. However, the pony that was strapped down in the chair was frantically moving around, unable to get free. Shadow remains standing above the pony, and as soon as I move in front of him and get a peek at his face.. I have to force myself not to run. His pupils were dilated, his expression was that of a mad-man.. and his right cheek had some dried and faded blood on it. “Do I frighten you?” he asked the gold colored mare in the chair, who’s response was only a scream muffled by the leather strap over her mouth. Shadow’s expression changed, his eyes returned to normal, and he had a heartwarming smile on his face, “I apologize if I do.. It wasn’t my intention.” He then takes his hoof and wipes off the blood on his face, “Oh, and this is ketchup, not blood. I was called in here while I was enjoying a meal.” He unbound the pony in the chair, causing her to be confused. “Now, I want you to get up and get out of here, your family is waiting for you on the 2nd floor.” “B-but why? Aren’t you The Surgeon? Why would you let me go like this?” she asked in a frightened voice. “I’ve been doing this for 2 years.. killing and torturing all who the higher ups tell me, and who I please. However, if I can just let one go.. allow one pony to escape, then I believe that now would be the time.” He smiled again as he looked in her eyes, “Now hurry up and go!” he shouted. She then thanked him, and with tears in her eyes made a break for the door. It wasn’t until she placed a hoof on the door that a blade came from the walls and severed her head from her body. I look on in horror as her head falls to the ground, accompanied by blood. Shadow then lets out a maniacal laugh, “Oh it’s so much more rewarding to see them happy before death!” he then wiped a tear away from his eye, walked over, and picked up her head in his hooves. A few seconds later he said, “This one stayed alive 17 seconds after decapitation. A new record.” He dropped her head and exited the room. Before I could respond, the scenery once again was replaced by the whiteness of the previous room. “Ahh yes.. I was nicknamed ‘The Surgeon’ for all of my phenomenal tortures and dismemberments.” He smiled, “After eight months in Wittenau, myself and a team of researchers were ordered to investigate the crash sight of a large meteor in the arctic Equestrian north that was near another facility.. we discovered something there..” upon saying this, another door was materialized. This one was plain, no redeeming features. “I’ll open this one.” I said with confidence. “No you won’t. There’s no need. You won with this one. Your buddy Shadow there has all of his memories back, save for a few bits and pieces. Which I can take care of.” Issac’s eyes then shined, and I saw flashes of things that I had just witnessed, and things I hadn’t pass before his eyes. When they subsided he blinked twice and smiled. “Happy you got your memory back?” I asked him. He shook his head, “Just giving the last few smiles I can before Aurum kills me.” I chuckled and said, “I’m still curious though.. how the hell did you and Aurum meet and start dating?” “Well..” he paused, “After killing my colleagues and all of the higher ups, the Matter Transferance Device I constructed overloaded, teleporting me to the Everfree forest where I lived for a few days before Aurum found me.” He smiled, “She took care of me, and gave me a home. A while later she introduced me to the mane 6.. oh, this was about a week or two before you showed up.” I think back, I remember seeing Shadow on the first day I arrived in Equestria, he actually helped point me to the library. “Well. I’m glad that I’m not the only one who remembers everything now.” I smile. Issac’s body then starts to fade, “All right. I’ll see you all when you guys wake up.” “Just don’t destroy my house with any crazy experiments..” I remind him. “Yeah yeah.” He says, then disappears completely. I look to Slips, “So… rock paper scissors to see who’s memories we get back next?”